Why does it feel like I have to make one of these journals at least once a year? Does this ever stop?
Lately, things have been a little tougher to deal with than usual.

A rundown of the issues:

Health:
Since the beginning of September, I've been having fairly significant difficulties breathing, with my asthma and such. As some of you know, I had a few medical conditions that make it impossible for me to work a normal, standard job, which is why I do commissions. Lately, my Interstitial Cystitis has gotten worse. I suspected my asthma medication of being the cause, because I researched and found some correlation between the two. So, in an effort to remedy the situation, I asked my doctor about getting off of that medication. So I did, and he put me on something else. That was at the beginning of September. About a week after stopping the original medication and starting the new however, I started experiencing worsening breathing issues. I assumed that these were withdrawal symptoms, since the former medication was a steroid.

However, my symptoms did not improve. Over the next three weeks, they got worse, to the point where I was waking up multiple times a night to use my rescue inhaler, and using it every 4 hours just to get by. Concerned, I researched again, and started looking for a possible cause to what I was now experiencing, since my new medication should have had it under control. One night, it got so bad that I nearly went to emergency during that time. I called an emergency health line provided by my insurance for advise, and they told me based on my symptoms that I should be okay for the night, but to call my doctor and go back in asap. So I went back to my doctor the following day. I asked him if it was possible that I had an infection because my throat felt incredibly tight. My doctor listened to my lungs and said they sounded clear, and simply told me to take Robitussin or Mucinex, and referred me to a Pulmologist (lung specialist) to have further testing done on my lungs. I also started taking my first medication again, wondering if the steroids would help, which was agreed upon by my doctor, until we can find out what's going on.

I went through a bottle of robitussin in 2 days (following proper dosage instructions), which seemed to help a little bit, but not enough. Two days later, I had gone through another bottle, which wasn't enough, and we switched to Mucinex. After two or three tablets of that, it became very clear to me that I do not have an infection- I have no mucus, so the medications aren't doing anything. I finally, reluctantly wondered if it could be caused by the new medication i'm on, causing some kind of tightness, like an allergic reaction. So I stopped taking that...

Now? Now I'm back on my original meds, improving very (VERY) slowly, but still having trouble breathing a few times a day.
This is normally where I would schedule my lung tests, to see what's wrong with them.

Entre, the second issue.

Vehicle:
Less than a year ago, I was forced to sell my own car because the transmission went out on it, and it was no longer worth the amount of money I had spent trying to get it repaired. It was too old, and we couldn't drive it. So that was scrapped. That left us with one car, my husband's car.

Last sunday, my husband was involved in an accident. It had just started raining. In Indiana, it is already getting cold, so the slick road had turned into ice. My husband was approaching a red light on a downhill and was stopping behind someone already stopped there, when the tires slid, and he rear ended the person in front of him. Their car was more or less fine. Ours? Not so much. The hood was dented in, the grill smashed, and it was unclear if the radiator was damaged or not. He was able to drive it home, luckily.

He needs that car to get to work, so later that day, he test drove it, and it seemed to do fine so long as he was careful with it. He decided to take that day off from work to try and assess the damage further. The next day, he decided to try and go to work using surface streets, taking it slow. Half way there, it overheated (with almost no indication from the heat meter- it spiked up at the last second, implying that something else is wrong with the car too), and he had to have it towed home. He took an Uber to work, and got a ride home from a coworker. Last night, he took an Uber to and from work. Now here we are. He doesn't have work again until sunday, but we absolutely don't have money for him to keep taking uber to work until his car is either fixed or otherwise dealt with. We're still waiting to hear back from the insurance on how much they're willing to give us for repairs. Yes, we are looking into bus routes. He would have to leave 3 hours early for work to catch the buses he would need. It's an option, but not an ideal one.

Until we have a functioning car, I cannot schedule my lung tests- I can't go back to breathing normally. I can't find out what's wrong with me. I almost went to emergency again friday night. Now? I can't even go, even if I desperately needed to, we would have no option but to call for an ambulance, which is restrictively expensive.

This is why I need you. I need your commissions, as many as you can give me, to get us through this week, and possibly next week, until we know what is happening. Some of you have already reached out to me despite that I, up until now, had not disclosed the particulars of my emergency, and now I have. Thank you, for those of you who have already helped.

For everyone else who is new to my crisis, I have open commissions across the board.
I'm doing all my normal offerings. Additionally, I'm offering $10 Quickports, which have always been fairly popular with you guys. If you can't help me by buying something, please help me by forwarding the message, referring people, etcetera.

All information, Pricing, examples, commission form, etc, can be found here:
http://trishields.weebly.com/
Or, simply message me if you would like to help in some way.

Thank you so much.